Many times, people are almost certainly motivated to act or not to take action by various factors. Hamlet is a play that focuses on the betrayals and the uncertainties that are involved as power shifts from one person to the next. From the outset, it is important to note that the play is set within a monarch but following the death of the beloved King Hamlet, the power does not devolve to his son but in a twist of fate, his brother, Claudius, takes over as the king. Ultimately, the play dramatizes the concept of revenge, justice, and moral uprightness. This aspect is evidenced by the fact that Prince Hamlet is not able to carry out revenge for the sudden death of his father, King Hamlet, even though the traditional cultural norms demand for vengeance. As a protestant King, Hamlet rejects the notions of vengeance and instead wants to pursue justice. Hamlet’s refusal to exact revenge following the killing of his father by Claudius is the main cause of conflict in the play. Ultimately, Hamlet is keen to expose Claudius deeds by making the latter confess. In the end, Hamlet’s actions and inactions are a source of dilemma for the audience depending on whether one considers his character through the lens of morality or justice.
The fact that Hamlet is able to refrain from using violence against his father’s killer shows that he has a strong sense of morality and justice that influence his actions and inactions throughout the play. Ultimately, when his perceptions of justice and morality crash, Hamlet becomes indecisive in dealing with matters head on and it is his uncertainty in dealing with the culprit that leads to the death of more people including himself. It is important to note that Hamlet’s strong morals do not necessarily make him weak, rather, his sense of morality seek s to provide insight to the audience reading the importance of knowing when to react to various aspects and how.
The play has consistently presented the aspect of friendship as an important aspect of morality. For instance, it is apparent that Hamlet remains a loyal friend to various characters in the play and expects his friends to display loyalty towards him. One of the characters who emerge as a loyal friend is Horatio who Hamlet seems to respect and trust so much that he is willing to make him his confidant. The trust between Horatio and Hamlet is considerable given that the latter can only speak his mind when in the company of the former. A different turn of events that portray Hamlet as a person who values loyalty, is when he realizes that some of the people he considers friends have been spying on him and taking information to Claudius. Hamlet does not second-guess his decision to punish them with the most severe punishment, death. Accordingly, Hamlet does not consider Gertrude a loyal friend and he does not hesitate to punish her despite the fact that he has known her for a very long time. It is evident that Hamlet’s decision to exterminate the people who do not display loyalty to him seems to stem from code of morality.
Consequently, despite Hamlet’s seemingly hasty decision to kill the two friends that are spying on him, it is apparent that he values life as is shown by the fact that he thinks of killing himself but is not able to do so because of his religious beliefs (The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark n. pag.). His value for life also makes Hamlet refrain several times from killing Claudius, until there is confirmation that the latter is responsible for the death of Hamlet’s father. As soon as Hamlet is able to confirm that Claudius is the person who is responsible for the murder, he (Hamlet) has an opportunity to take his revenge but still hesitates because he believes that killing him would not be fair because Claudius is yet to make a full confession of his crime. In this regard, it is clear that his hesitation is not based on indecisiveness or cowardice but is founded on Hamlet’s notions of justice and fairness. Nevertheless, it is important to note that when he discovers a person spying on him in the chamber belonging to Gertrude, Hamlet acts without hesitation, but this action does not necessarily mean that he has disregarded his principles give that he does not give the spy a chance to explain himself. Instead, his swift decision is derived from his notions of loyalty. In this regard, although Hamlet appears to be indecisive in scenes and erratic in others, a keen scrutiny of his actions and inaction reveal a consistent pattern of behavior based on a moral code. It may not appear fair that people die because of Hamlet’s action and inaction but the overall message that the play seeks to convey is the importance of a moral code to guide individual behavior. Ultimately, bad things happen because Hamlet does not seem to behave the way the audience expects and this may lead to the audience blaming him for the bad things that happen, but on a different perspective, it every character has a moral code to rely upon for guidance, perhaps there would be no trouble in the first place.
With regard to the foregoing, it is apparent that the play represents an intricate moral situation. Hamlet has to deal with difficult situations and has to ensure that his actions are fair and do not betray his moral code. From the outset, it is obvious that Hamlet has to take revenge against his father’s murderer. However, avenging his father would mean acting in a manner that would be highly offensive to his mother. From a moral point of view, it is despicable for a person to disregard his own mother’s wishes or even to punish one’s mother. In the end, Hamlet’s predicament between hurting his own mother and avenging the death of his father leaves his reputation in taters as his father’s murder remain unresolved. It is hard not to support the argument that Hamlet is indecisive but it would be wrong to underestimate the gravity of the two options available to him, a decision either way would seem extreme and is likely to attract absolute ramifications, even without considering how such actions would affect his emotional state. By avenging his father’s death, it is likely that he will be perceived as a person motivated by justice but he will also face moral condemnation. On the other hand, when he does not avenge his father’s death, Hamlet emerges as a person who upholds morality but also one who disregards justice. As such, the entire play is meant to reveal the thin line between justice and morality and to show that one informs the other.
Work Cited
“The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”. n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2016. http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/full.html
